The good and bad of backlinks: Black Hats vs White Hats

Most things in life have both good and bad. For SEO and backlinks, we have Black Hats and White Hats.

Black hats are the easiest way to receive backlinks. However, the links are usually suspicious, have low authority and quality. Google tends to rate these backlinks unfavourably. As a result, your site’s credibility will get affected and the damage might be permanent. Not quite worth the immediate boost you might receive through these black hat links.

White hat’s methods, on the other hand, tend to take more time to see results. Patience coupled with smart hard work will reward you with credible backlinks and improves your website’s authority and status.

So let’s put on our white hats like Micheal Jackson and get ready to be a smooth criminal.

Backlink for backlink

A blog is crucial in building a credible list of backlinks. In a previous post, we spoke about how you can make your more readable. While writing articles on your blog, you might refer to an external source. The best sources are those from credible websites. This will help you get the same treatment in the future by building a relationship and reward you with backlinks. After your article is completed, reach out to those you linked via email and let them know why did you link them.

Give Constructive Feedback

It helps to also be active on other people’s blogs. Find blog topics that you are well versed in and provide constructive feedback or comments on the blog post. You can leave your URL in the comment as well so other readers who find your comment constructive and relevant to the topic may check your website out. This is a good way to create white hat backlinks.

Original Survey, Full Authority

Having your own survey is amazing as you will be the only one with the results numbers and therefore, makes you the authority on the subject. Your blog will be linked when someone wants to reference your survey results. Plan a survey that no one else has done. With the results of the survey, create a blog post about it and share it with all your social media platforms. You can create a great survey using freeware such as Google Forms. You can also create an infographic with the results for a more attractive reading.

The Direct Method: Guest Blogging

Guest blogging gives you the opportunity to link your own website while writing the blog. Search for websites who accept guest blogging that is relevant to your area of expertise. Once you found a good website, pitch your idea to them. Make sure your idea is relevant and will be beneficial to their blog, also, pay attention to their submitting rules. Ultimately, posting a blog article on a credible website and Google will rate your backlinks favourably and will also increase your exposure.

To follow or not

Having your link to a credible website increase your SEO ranking. In order to prevent spams from unfavourable websites, most websites have included a NoFollow rule. This means that even if you have your link to that website, your ranking does not increase.

To check if the website is Nofollow, right click on the page and click View Page Source or Inspect
In the new window, press Ctrl F and search “nofollow”

When can I see results?

All the methods done together can produce great results. Backlinking can easily take up to 10 weeks for each result or longer.

Conclusion

By practising these methods, your website will gain credibility and soon, it will be recognized as an authority on the subject you are focusing on. Remember, hard work pays off. Keep it up and you will see results. When you are there, do not forget to help those that come along your path too.